Major Mail Problems PLEASE PLEASE HELP

Question

Major Mail Problems PLEASE PLEASE HELP

ok where to start...

we were hosting our website, mail, filemaker etc basically everything from ouir G5 Server (OS X 10.4).

The domains were registered with uk2.net and i wanted to have the webhosting with domainsrush.net.
the email for our new domain was somehow being routed or diverted through the companies old domain name.

when i changed the dns servers for the new domains to domainsrush dns, the email went off.

I have been told left right and centre that mx and dns records need to be setup for the new domain.

so i am currently at here...

newly installed server from scratch.

mail is running but nothings working.

the domain if it helps is www.timeact.co.uk

what do i do? i have to get the email back up and running by tonight.

please please can someone kindly tell me what i have to do? (except for cry)

Posted on Nov 9, 2005 5:51 AM

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Answer 1

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 5:57 AM in response to digitaljunkie

Your MX record resolves to
timeact.co.uk. 579 IN MX 0 ds816.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk
which means that the "handling" mailserver is on:
ds816.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk. 86339 IN A 81.21.72.14

timeact.co.uk on the aother hand resolves to:
timeact.co.uk. 457 IN A 81.21.72.15

Is that correct? In other words is 81.21.72.14 the IP your mail server has?

If yes, post the output of postconf -n. If not, fix your DNS records.

Alex

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Answer 2

Nov 9, 2005 6:04 AM in response to pterobyte

Im pretty new to all this so please bear with me.

firstly 81.21.72.14 isn't an I.P address i recognise our external ip is 81.137.215.123

the internals are 192.168.x.xx etc etc

so where/how do i create dns/mx records.

I tried creating a custom MX record in the domains rush control panel and left the prefix empty the tTL as 600 the distance as 0 and the Value as ds816.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk.

to be honest i don't even understand where are how we got ds816.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk. i think thats to do with uk2.net.

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Answer 3

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 6:10 AM in response to digitaljunkie

No offense, but if all of this doesn't make sense to you, I wouldn't advise managing something as critical as a mail server. But that's your choice 😉

I have no idea what your provider's control panel looks like. However, you must make sure that your MX record points to your "external" address. At the same time your router must be configured to do port forwarding for port 25, from the external IP to your server's internal IP. Don't know what terms you have with your provider, but typically that's something their help desk can assist you with.

Once this is done, you need to make sure your mail server know which IPs and domains to respond on. This is configured through server admin.

Alex

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Answer 4

Nov 9, 2005 6:17 AM in response to pterobyte

no offense taken, the reason for not understanding entirely is noone here knows how the server was setup as someone outside did it, i have only been here 2 days.

the mx record mentioned previously is the issue that doesnt appear in the domainsrush panel, i dont know where that mx record is held or accessable from (maybe uk2.net?)

the router is configured becuase the VPN works and the email and web used and i havent changed the router at all.

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Answer 5

Nov 9, 2005 6:22 AM in response to pterobyte

81.21.72.14
81.21.72.15

These 2 I.P addresses are the domains rush name servers if that helps.

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Answer 6

Nov 9, 2005 6:49 AM in response to digitaljunkie

Is the mx record relatred to our ISP?

I mean if this is the issue cant i speak to our isp to get the mx record deleted or changed?

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Answer 7

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 6:49 AM in response to digitaljunkie

Well according to Nominet your DNS is handled by:
ns1.domainsrush.org 81.21.72.14
ns2.domainsrush.org 81.21.72.15

These are your DNS servers and will respond with your MX record if configured correctly.
So if you have you problems, you must call them or your provider. Nobody else can help unfortunately.

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Answer 8

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 6:50 AM in response to digitaljunkie

This is what I have told you before.

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Answer 9

Nov 9, 2005 7:22 AM in response to pterobyte

ok its proving neigh on impossible to get that original mx record changed or removed can't i just create a new one in my the web hosting companies control panel?

if so can you confirm this....

Prefix : leave this blank"
TTL : "maybe 20 mins"
Distance: "0"
Value : "mail.timeact.co.uk"

im not understanding the values all to well.

I assume os x mail servers pop and smtp are mail.timeact.co.uk as default.

www.timeact.co.uk is the domain i changed the dns servers from uk2.net to domainsrush.org.

I hope that makes sense

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Answer 10

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 7:35 AM in response to digitaljunkie

Your DNS server is the one associated at the root level (i.e. by your registrar). Unless you change that you cannot use another host as your DNS. No, I repeat no way around this.

I don't see why your ISP cannot make those changes for you (or thell you how to make them). Unless your contract explicitly excludes mail services.

Again, don't ask me about your control panel. I don't use it, never have.

Sorry, but you need to sort this out with your ISP

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Answer 11

Nov 9, 2005 7:49 AM in response to pterobyte

Our ISP is BT (UK not the most helpful of ISP's) they say as the domain isn't hosted with them they don't hold the MX record, they are purely the our ISP our access to the outside world.
They offer mail forwarding but thats it.
When I called them they said the MX record would be held with the original Domain Registar (uk2.net) but uk2.net don't have any Control Panel of login settings for editing MX records the only thing I am able to do is change the DNS which I did do as I changed the DNS to domainsrush DNS...
ns1.domainsrush.org (81.21.72.14)
ns2.domainsrush.org (81.21.72.15)

As domainsrush will be hosting the website.
What all this has to do with with settingup my os x mail server is what has confused me.

Sorry but as I am sure you can understand being my 2nd day here and having this thrown on me is a little stressy.

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Answer 12

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 7:58 AM in response to digitaljunkie

If domainsrush holds your DNS then they and only they can help you.
Alex

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Answer 13

Nov 9, 2005 8:02 AM in response to pterobyte

ok thanks

one last thing i hope im reading through the manuals and wondering if i need to setup any zones or items in the DNS part of mac os x server?

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Answer 14

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Nov 9, 2005 8:25 AM in response to digitaljunkie

No

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Answer 15

Nov 9, 2005 8:57 AM in response to pterobyte

may i ask how you got this info?

QUOTE: "Your MX record resolves to
timeact.co.uk. 579 IN MX 0 ds816.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk
which means that the "handling" mailserver is on:
ds816.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk. 86339 IN A 81.21.72.14

timeact.co.uk on the aother hand resolves to:
timeact.co.uk. 457 IN A 81.21.72.15 "

as my mail server currently says in the logs...

"Nov 9 14:44:23 server postfix/pipe[967]: 20931287A4: to=<steve.howe@timeact.co.uk>, relay=cyrus, delay=0, status=bounced (data format error. Command output: steve.howe: Mailbox does not exist )
Nov 9 14:44:23 server postfix/qmgr[942]: 20931287A4: removed
Nov 9 14:44:25 server postfix/smtpd[959]: disconnect from unknown[192.168.0.15]
Nov 9 14:48:46 server postfix/smtpd[1008]: connect from ***1-relay-2.mail.demon.net[194.217.242.209]
Nov 9 14:48:46 server postfix/smtpd[1008]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from ***1-relay-2.mail.demon.net[194.217.242.209]: 554 <bigwordsmith@dlpcomms.co.uk>: Relay access denied; from=<ttdhooksnbb@hotmail.com> to=<bigwordsmith@dlpcomms.co.uk> proto=ESMTP helo=<relay-2.mail.demon.net>
Nov 9 14:48:47 server postfix/smtpd[1008]: disconnect from ***1-relay-2.mail.demon.net[194.217.242.209]"

I have created a MX record in the Domainsrush CP (my new hosting company)

I put the TTL (time till live) as 600
distance at 0
Value i have put down as mail.timeact.co.uk.

I am concerned as domainsrush help says...

"An MX record must point to a hostname, not an IP address, if you need to direct mail to a server which does not have a hostname, you will first need to create one for it by adding an A record pointing to the server IP address, then create the MX record directing to the newly created hostname."

So i think I've done something wrong here.

The control panel allows me to do these....

Custom DNS Records Screen....

Mail (MX) Records

Prefix TTL Distance Value Action
600 0 mail.timeact.co.uk. <Edit><Delete>

<Add MX Record>

Web Site (A & CNAME) Records

No A or CNAME records defined.

<Add A or CNAME Record>

indicating a button.

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